Sunday, February 5, 2012

NPR Puzzle 2/5/12 - Animal Crackers

Name an animal. Add the letters "A" and "T," and rearrange the result to name another animal. These are both animals that might be found in a zoo, and the last letter of the first animal is the first letter of the last one.

Ross solved this while I was otherwise occupied, leaving me to ponder the real question of what photos to use. But we'll get to that in a moment.

Photos. There's a connection to the answer(s) to the puzzle, but I'll give you a BIG hint. Any animals you see in the following photos ARE NOT the answer.

Time for...

This is where we ask you how many entries you think NPR will get for the challenge above. If you want to win, leave a comment with your guess for the range of entries NPR will receive. First come first served, so read existing comments before you guess. Ross and I guess last, just before we publish the Thursday post. After the Thursday post is up, the entries are closed. The winner gets a puzzle book of our unspecified choosing.

This week, there were 330 entries, which means in some abstract sense I won. (I don't actually send myself a puzzle book.) I'll send one to YOU if you successfully pick the range for this week's puzzle. So enter!

Our tie-break rule: In the event that a single round number is announced, AND two separate people picked the ranges leading up to and leading up from that round number, the prize will be awarded to whichever entrant had not already won a prize, or in the event that both entrants had won a prize already or neither had, then to the earlier of the two entries on the famous judicial principle of "First Come First Serve," (or in technical legal jargon, "You Snooze, You Lose"). And yes, this rule is most-likely obsolete but I just like having fine print.

I sometimes wonder if Will and the puzzle staff (whatever that consists of) realize that a transcript of the show is provided right on their site.I go there after doubting my ears during the show.Last week's abridged clue was prefaced by "[the earlier version] provides an example that cannot be solved as described...."Rachel Martin apparently thought that might be a little strong and said "...the original example that we gave last week may have been a bit misleading...." Maybe Will was well advised in his decades long policy of avoiding corrections nearly altogether. In fact, he left it to Rachel this time.Does everyone feel better that he followed that mess with a puff-puzzle?I'd go with over 5000 this week if I were sure that many listeners are left.